The jet spindle on an air jet spinning machine presents a major noise source for the machine. Such machines typically operate at 94.0-95.0 db(A) with the jet noise a major contributor to these overall levels. Accordingly, these machines often generate noise levels above employee exposure levels for 8 hours, which have been set by Federal and State legislation.
Various devices for noise abatement have been adapted for various kinds of textile machinery. These devices have a disadvantage in that they are designed to be permanently in place or must be manually opened or removed in order to provide access to the textile machinery. For example, Weiss et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,876 discloses a jet muffler used in conjunction with the jet for reducing the audible noise emitted by the jet. The muffler includes a housing, sound absorbing material and a hinge means. However, in order to open the muffler an operator must manually open the housing. Similarly, Weiss et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,043,008 also discloses a noise reduction system for use with a draw point localizing jet which must be manually opened or removed in order to allow access to the jet.
The manually opened noise abatement devices of the prior art are clearly not suitable for a high production yield machine, such as for example a Murata Jet Spinner or Toray Spinning Machine, in which periodic access to the jet chamber of such a machine is required in order for a threading-up operation to take place. Access is required to the jet chamber of such machines in order to allow a yarn suction tube to enter into the jet chamber to thread-up a yarn end which has come down.